The Government has already chosen the headquarters of the Spanish Space Agency (AEE) and the Artificial Intelligence Supervisory Agency (AESIA). They will be, respectively, in Seville and A Coruña. The person in charge of breaking the news was the Minister for Territorial Policy and Government Spokesperson, Isabel Rodriguez, at the press conference after the Council of Ministers on Monday, December 5.
Rodríguez recalled that an objective and transparent procedure was opened in March of this year to choose both venues, whose purpose was to improve the cohesion of the country. Finally, these two cities have been chosen among 37 candidacies presented.
A Coruña will be the headquarters of the Artificial Intelligence Supervision Agency
Among other things, A Coruña has been chosen for the university ecosystem it has in relation to Artificial Intelligence, and also for the productive fabric that it has generated and that is directly linked to innovation in the digital world. The support of the Galician autonomous community and municipal initiatives in the area that facilitate the mobility of workers have also influenced the decision.
Its choice to house this headquarters, to which 16 candidates were presented, has been unanimously of the members of the Advisory Commission, the one in charge of choosing it. To get to the vote, he had to overcome the objective and technical procedure for assessing candidacies proposed for the selection. The presence of AESIA in A Coruña will contribute to the retention of talent, but also to its attraction. It will also be important to combat depopulation in the community, since it is expected to be a focus for direct and indirect job creation.
Among its powers will be the supervision of the development of an ecosystem around Artificial Intelligence that is respectful and guarantees its use. In addition, it is expected to enhance research, as well as the business and social ecosystem related to AI in the region and in the country.
One of the factors of weight for the choice of the city has been that the research centers of the Galician universities have launched international projects in the field of Artificial Intelligence, which has put the Galician autonomous community at the forefront of research in AI. The relationship between research and business has also weighed heavily, since the area has leading companies that have incorporated, or are in the process of incorporating, Artificial Intelligence into their production processes.
The selection of A Coruña to be the headquarters of AESIA will be important to give more impetus to the region of Galicia and northern Portugalalso favoring the increase and improvement of cooperation between countries and allowing the creation of a talent hub in Artificial Intelligence for the Iberian Peninsula.
Likewise, Galicia could be a suitable area for the deployment of PERTE projects for the New language economy, focused on promoting both Spanish and the co-official languages of Spain to become engines of growth through an ecosystem of innovation and AI. The Universities of A Coruña and Santiago de Compostela already have leading research groups in Natural Language Processing, an area related to the proposal of this PERTE:
The Spanish Space Agency will have its headquarters in Seville
As for Seville, it offers the national and international connections demanded by professionals in the aerospace sector and that the Government requested the candidate cities to host the Spanish Space Agency. It has an important connection network by air, as well as by land. It also has AVE and a wide range of hotels and an adequate real estate market.
In addition, it has the backing of the Junta de Andalucía, and with a Established aerospace research environment. In the Autonomous Community of Andalusia there are 152 entities with experience in the sector. Of these, 64 are in Seville, an area that also has 36 companies, 22 research groups and 5 public organizations linked to space. Among them are the Andalucía Aerospace cluster and Airbus. In addition, it provides a building for exclusive use provided free of charge by the Seville City Council, which is already available. This is also a very important point for the selection of this headquarters.
The ceded building is the Center for Advanced Business Resources (CREA), and has all the necessary equipment, both in terms of communications infrastructure and security and work facilities. In addition to this building, Seville has offered four other alternative locations for the agency, which according to the Government will be taken into account in the future in the event that changes, extensions or transfers have to be made at the AEA headquarters.
In addition, Rodríguez has indicated that the election of Seville will probably have a lot of weight when it comes to attract investment and talent to southern Spain. Having this headquarters will collaborate in the development of the aerospace industry in other provinces and towns in Andalusia. Currently, however, it already has a socioeconomic and educational environment (four universities and several private university centers) suitable for the adaptation of Agency staff. The city has already proposed, on the other hand, a support program for family integration and reunification for them.
